Canon SLR Troubleshooting and Comments

[jlgurr]

So a little back to basics perhaps ?
What ISO is the camera set to ? Set it to 1600 on the back menu to help have a known faster shutter speed to identify the cause of the focus issue.

OK, next set the camera on Av mode (aperture value). Now rotate the rotary dial right behind the shutter release to set the aperture value to the lowest available for the lens you have (3.5-4 if you have a typical zoom lens). Set the lens to its widest angle/shortest focal length.

Take a piece of newsprint or a black and white printed page with good size text on it (about 1/2" high test would be ideal) and fasten it to something so that you can put the camera on a tripod and have the back of the camera parallel to the page. The text on the page should fill the frame.

Make sure that the switch on the lens is set to AF, not MF. Go to the menu on the back of the camera, first page, AF Mode: set it to "one shot". Below that "metering Mode" pick the top of the 3 options (square with an ellipse with a dot in the center). Directly below that, ISO speed = 1600 The very top item "quality" should be set to L with a curve to the left of it.

Last check, for the focal point, press the button top right of the camera back (on top of the camera it should show a cross with all of the available focal points). While holding down the botton, rotate the wheel behind the shutter release until the focal point directly in the center of the viewfinder is illuminated (just 1 not all of them and right in the center).

Now fix the camera to the tripod, press the shutter release half way and see if the text is sharp in the optical viewfinder. If it is, press the shutter release in all the way and take a picture. If you are too close to the sheet of paper the camera may not be able to focus or if it is dark it may try to use the AF illuminator which may not focus accurately. So do your test in daylight, possibly not in direct sunlight since the contrast would be severe.

If the image is sharp in the optical viewfinder, it should be sharp in the image file. Sometimes with a wide angle lens it is very difficult to judge the focal point, so zoom in and then the depth of field will be reduced and the focus may be more exact. Even more important to use the tripod with a longer focal length since unless the exposure time is shorter, you are more likely to get blur from camera movement.

If none of that works, then it suggests that there is some problem with the optical phase shift of the focusing system and may need repair. That may render the camera a candidate for astrophotography or similar pursuits where the focus is always at infinity....

Looks like I have an opportunity for astrophotography or a new toy for the kids.:confused3:

 

[jlgurr]

If Westcliffes instructions seem a bit complex, just try this: put the camera on a table or chair. Set the exposure dial to the green rectangle (full auto) and use the self timer. Aim the camera at a bookshelf or similar item and click. Check the center of the exposed image for focus.

:thumbdown:

 

[jlgurr]

I used to shoot weddings and events. Prior to either I got in the habit of a "Clear All Settings" and start fresh. I did this because I had left some settings one or two times that I had forgot about that caused me a lot of grief in post processing.

jlgurr, are you doing anything in the way of sharpening when or if you edit your images? Perhaps the better eyesight after the laser surgery is bringing out the softness which is somewhat inherent to typical DLSR images.

Take some shots outside on a sunny day, ISO about 400, camera on Av, and set the aperture to f/16. At f/16 the lens will have a wide DOF(depth of field) and most all should be in focus enough to tell if there is a focus problem with the camera.

Also if any of your lenses have a "protective" UV filters on them, ditch them and try some shots without. Some inexpensive filters can cause reflections between the filter and the front lens element and mess with the cameras AF system throwing focus off.

If I got into the habit of resetting it wouldn't be so difficult to set my preferences quickly. I'm going to consider that as I like to try new things every now and then and might forget of the "tweaks" that might affect future shots.

Tried your ideas with no luck. New body on the way, be here tomorrow afternoon. :cool2:

 

[westcliffe01]

FYI, for focusing, the light has to strike the mirror, pass through a partially reflective layer in the center, then gets directed down to the focus sensor which is on the base of the camera below and in front of the main CCD chip. So, in my opinion, the mirror may not be in the correct position when at rest, or if you manually lift up the mirror (with a cotton gloved hand) and look to the area below the mirror, maybe there is some contamination or a dead bug or something which could be cleaned. Usually for cleaning the first thing one would try is "canned air" which is pure and will not leave a residue. If it was a hair or something, one could try removing it with a tweezers.

There are shops which remove the high pass filter in front of the CCD so that the IR spectrum is no longer blocked (allows awesome IR images to be taken and will make it NV capable if used with an IR illuminator). They may actually be able to check out the focusing mechanism and possibly repair it for a much more modest price. Here is an example Imaging Infinity

Samples of full spectrum images here Shooting IR

 

[jlgurr]

How hard of a drop will knock the mirror off kilter?

Sent from my iPhone 2.0 using TractorByNet

 

[IslandTractor]

How hard of a drop will knock the mirror off kilter? Sent from my iPhone 2.0 using TractorByNet

Depends on a number of things but falling two or three feet could certainly do it to a Rebel. A pro level DSLR might tolerate a bit more. A case or soft landing might also be protective.

 

[jlgurr]

Depends on a number of things but falling two or three feet could certainly do it to a Rebel. A pro level DSLR might tolerate a bit more. A case or soft landing might also be protective.

Dad's going to need to limit custody and control of the new camera. :-(

 

[MarkF48]

that the images have a bit of blur to them.

Just to be sure were on the same page, it is the images that you are viewing on a monitor that have the blur and not necessarily through the viewfinder. I'm likely thinking you did mean viewed on the monitor, but there is a "diopter" adjustment knob on the side of the viewfinder eyepiece that if not adjusted for your new laser sharp vision could make for a blurry image in the viewfinder. The diopter adjustment only affects the viewfinder and not the image taken by the camera.

Hey new cameras are fun!!!:thumbsup: Canon Rebel was my first DSLR and I never had any complaints about for all the shots I took.
Assuming your old batteries may not fit the new camera, I've bought most of my camera batteries from SterlingTEK - Secure Online Shop and never had a problem.

 

[jlgurr]

Just to be sure were on the same page, it is the images that you are viewing on a monitor that have the blur and not necessarily through the viewfinder. I'm likely thinking you did mean viewed on the monitor, but there is a "diopter" adjustment knob on the side of the viewfinder eyepiece that if not adjusted for your new laser sharp vision could make for a blurry image. The diopter adjustment only affects the viewfinder and not the image taken by the camera. Hey new cameras are fun!!!:thumbsup: Canon Rebel was my first DSLR and I never had any complaints about for all the shots I took. Assuming your old batteries may not fit the new camera, I've bought most of my camera batteries from SterlingTEK - Secure Online Shop and never had a problem.

Yes, the blurry images are in developed photographs, on my PC, and on the small LCD screen of the camera.

 

[MF283]

Are you able to post any of the pics you're telling us about?

Ronnie

 

[jlgurr]

Are you able to post any of the pics you're telling us about?

Ronnie

Yes, I will get a couple and share them.

 

[jcummins]

Yes, I will get a couple and share them.

Please do. I have the same camera. Use to be a lot more picky of my photos, these day, not so much. BUT I've notice my images don't seem quite as sharp as I remember them, and your thread has brought that to the surface. I need to take some specific pictures for analysis is I've got a problem too.

Question for others, without all the research, I notice some cameras have wi-fi for pictures transfer. Does anyone here do that? And what cameras do that? Have SLRs do away with the mirror??

 

[IslandTractor]

I have a Fuji XT-1 that has wifi. It works but I rarely use it. Only practical use for me is the rare shot I want to email before I get to a computer. I can download a file to my iPhone and then email it. Occasionally useful when traveling but not a must have.

 

[westcliffe01]

If it is a SLR it basically has to have a mirror. But if you were to get one of the 4/3 cameras, they do not have mirrors and that is one of the reasons why they are so compact and another reason why the lens systems are so optically excellent, since the rear lens element can be 1/16" off the CCD chip without risk.

Question for others, without all the research, I notice some cameras have wi-fi for pictures transfer. Does anyone here do that? And what cameras do that? Have SLRs do away with the mirror??

 

[IslandTractor]

There is a relatively new mirrorless camera class that uses an electronic viewfinder instead of the mirror based viewfinder of a classic SLR. Sony, Olympus, Fuji, Panasonic, Samsung, Canon and Nikon all make them now. There are pros and cons for mirrorless. They are typically smaller and lighter. They don't focus as quickly as SLRs. Image quality is essentially the same as SLR for a given sensor size. My Fuji XT-1 has the same size sensor as my Canon D50 DSLR and produces as good or better image quality. It doesn't focus as fast.

 

[jlgurr]

The girl holding babies is a 2013 photo, the railroad water tank and kids was just two weeks ago.

 

[westcliffe01]

Railroad tank was a 1/200th exposure at 135mm focal length. ISO 100. I'd say that is getting close to the point that one can expect camera movement to create unsharpness. Back in the old days when not everyone had telephoto lenses, a lot of photography was done with 35 and 50mm lenses that has apertures of 1.4 or 1.8 and a camera can focus those lenses a lot better than they can a zoom lens with an aperture of 4.0 or even 5.6. Get yourself a cheap 50mm F1.4 lens and see how that works for you. Why not run ISO 400 ? that would be 2 stops more safety or an exposure time of 1/800 and then I think the image will be sharper. Modern digital SLR's do not suffer nearly as much from noise at higher ISO values than the old ones.

The image in front of the water tank is clearly out of focus and nothing behind the water tank is critically sharp either. So to me this does not look like a focusing problem.

Crank up the ISO value all the way to 1600 on a contrasty subject and see what you get. Use a tripod and focus critically (manual focus) and then take the image with a remote or the self timer.

 

[MarkF48]

Check your lenses that they are on AF (Auto Focus). I opened the images below in Canon's DPP and turned on the focus point indicator (the boxes in the AF matrix). Your older image shows the red AF points where camera grabbed focus at. The newer "tank" image has no AF points illuminated and the shooting info shows the focus mode is "Manual" for that image. I'm not sure that the AF can be put manual within the camera, so if the lenses are set to AF, then it's likely the camera may be at fault or the camera is not receiving the lens focus status correctly.
You had said you cleaned the contacts and those do convey the focus status to the camera. Perhaps try cleaning them again, both the on the lens and camera body if the lenses are indeed set to AF.

 

[IslandTractor]

Agree with Westcliffe. You'd need very steady hands or bracing to get a sharp photo at 1/200 at 135mm focal length. I cannot see the exif data on the other photos with my iPhone but it could possibly be a similar issue as nothing appears in focus in any of them.

Modern DSLRs generally do fine with ISO up to 800.

Another test shot you might try to distinguish focus problems from some other issue: In bright light, lay a ruler or yardstick on a table about two feet away and perpendicular to the camera. Focus on a mark about halfway (6" or 18"). Take the shot with shutter speed of 1/500. Check the image and see if a) anything is in good focus b) if the number you focused on or some other mark is in focus.

 

[IslandTractor]

Good catch on the MF issue Mark48